2014 AD100: Aero Studios

Thomas O’Brien, founder of the tastemaking New York firm Aero Studios, describes his approach as distinctly American. “You see it in the mix of things I put together—light and dark, fine and easy, masculine and feminine, modern and traditional,” he says. “I’m always balancing these ideas.” The evolution of the various aesthetic threads O’Brien weaves into his timeless yet of-the-moment residential interiors as well as into his beloved SoHo shop, Aero, is chronicled in the new book Aero: Beginning to Now (Abrams). The design maestro, who has created furnishings for Hickory Chair, Lee Jofa, Safavieh, and Target, among others, is currently applying his brand of unpretentious luxury to the interiors at the Greenwich Lane, a residential complex in downtown Manhattan that, in true Aero spirit, melds both classic and contemporary buildings. aerostudios.com